“I could not believe what a fantastic job it did,” the husband told ODD, as he stood in his rubber half-shoe boots, socks, a tattered tee shirt, with sweat pouring down his face.  “It also might have taken the top layer of dirt off the wooden banisters,” he added, confessing his hope that it didn’t actually strip away the wood.    

He was very anxious to share the pressure washer model he settled on, after deeply researching the many, many choices on the worldwide web.  “But when I found the Sunjoe SPX 3000--with ten-inch patio cleaning attachment!--I knew all the hours of research had been worth it,” he said. He also wanted to alert potential purchasers to the fact that the item unexpectedly arrived in not one, but two boxes.  Asked if they were heavy, he said:  “Well one was pretty heavy, but I managed.”

“I’m not much of a cook, but I do like to eat,” the wife told ODD.  She confesses that she has really missed going out for ribs (dry rub, she doesn’t eat sugar…that’s another story).  So she decided to make some fish cakes.  While crab cakes are high on her list of favs, ever cost-conscious, especially as she and the husband’s investments regularly do back flips, she decided to go with tilapia. 

Combining three recipes, each of which individually fell short, she happily mixed the fish (which she pre-cooked), veges, panko, eggs, mustard, mayo, and some other things.  Then she froze them, cuz, you know, the pandemic.   “But don’t do what I did,” she cautions, when, upon defrosting them and noticing that they looked kind of raw, not toasty at all, she asked the husband:  “Hey, was I supposed to fry them?”

This year, the Tour de France is a virtual competition because Pandemic. Each contestant rides in their location of choice (e.g., back porch, with Alps in the background) on a trainer linked to Zwift, an online training program (never mind how it works--too complicated).   Not only can amateur Zwifters like the avid-cyclist husband watch--they can also virtually bike the Tour de France routes themselves.  He did--that’s virtual him, front of the pack, 1,262 places behind the leader!  So far (other Zwifters are still riding the same course), husband proudly reports holding the 13,488th best time!

Five days after having shots in and around her spine to alleviate chronic lower back pain, the wife assumed she was recovered enough to hop on her bike, head to the Bronx River Parkway to participate in yet another “Bicycle Sunday,” and ride 20 miles.  Unfortunately, she fell off.

“I pulled up to a stop sign that I usually ignore, only to be faced with an oncoming car which made me have to stop,” she said by way of self-defense.  “It wasn’t exactly a fall,” she said.  “I kind of tipped over and hit the ground, you know?”  Asked if biking 20 miles and slipping off her bike might have impeded the impact of the shots, the doctor’s answer was an unequivocal, “YES.”  In the wife’s future?  More treatment, less biking.